The landmark headlines raise the question: Why does it matter which gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation politicians are?

Advocates for diversity believe that the more a legislative body can reflect all types of constituents, the more just and nuanced the laws will be.

“The American people are best represented by people who have walked in their shoes,” said Arturo Vargas, the chief executive of NALEO Educational Fund, an organization that works to help elect Latinos. “It goes to the premise of the nation’s founding: of the people, by the people, for the people. The people are diverse, so in order for that value to have meaning, our policymakers need to have that diversity.”

Portia Prescott, vice chairwoman of the African American initiative for Colorado Democrats, put it more starkly: “If you don’t have people who can represent diversity, then you have political decisions made in a vacuum.”

For Colorado’s glass ceiling-shattering candidates, the 2018 election is a moment that means the state’s increasingly diverse electorate — more than a quarter of Colorado is nonwhite, and 50 percent are women — can see more of themselves in policymaking decisions.

“The main reason I ran for office was because I wanted to ensure that we had leadership that reflected the community,” said Rochelle Galindo, a Democrat who will be the first Latina to represent Greeley in the state House. Nearly 40 percent of Greeley residents are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census.

Rep.-elect Titone, a Democrat who will represent Arvada, said her election means that for the first time in Colorado, a transgender woman will have a vote on policies about transgender issues.

One common retort to calling attention to diversity is that “we’re all humans first.”

Ramon Del Castillo, chair of the Chicano studies department at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said the color-blind argument — that race doesn’t matter in policy — “doesn’t carry weight.” He said until long-standing inequalities in housing, school and employment are addressed, policymakers must address the issues.

“We should honor and respect our differences,” he said. “It’s too idealistic to say color doesn’t matter. It does. We’re not at a point where we can say color doesn’t matter.”

But since the 2016 election, which saw Hillary Clinton lose support among white voters without college degrees, there has been an open debate as to whether Democrats, in particular, are relying too heavily on “identity politics.”

Advocates for diversity say different kinds of voices need to be integrated more into all levels of politics. Four women who went through Democrats’ Emerge Colorado training program this year won seats at the county and local level. One of those women is Shontel Lewis, an openly queer black woman elected to the RTD board. She will represent District B, which includes heavily black and Hispanic northeast Denver neighborhoods.

“I am from the community,” said Lewis, who grew up using public transportation and whose child now uses public transportation. “As we’re looking at advancement and innovations, I’m going to be looking at how this impacts people, and making sure the people are at the forefront.”

Women, people of color and LGBT individuals are also helping shape the policy debates behind the scenes.

Jack Teter, political director for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, began his gender transition while he was a statehouse legislative aide in 2015.

Teter remembers having to tell lawmakers he had a new name and discussing the dress code with the sergeants at arms. He said individuals in traditionally marginalized communities want — and need to be — part of the conversation.

“We want women to be making laws about reproductive rights,” he said. “We want queer folks to be making laws about queer issues.”

The request is no different than rural Coloradans wanting people making laws about water use to be from rural Colorado, Teter said.

Juan Gallegos, managing director of CIRC Action Fund, an organization that works to protect immigrant rights, said operatives behind the scenes can be the driving force behind a policy when others give up.

Gallegos, who is gay and immigrated to the United States without documentation with his family when he was 12, said the fight to have more representation is “personal.”

“Some of my colleagues might say immigration isn’t an important topic, that it’s not politically expedient,” he said. “But I know it’s important to talk about what’s right: keeping families together.”

Back at the Capitol, Titone and other incoming lawmakers say they recognize their broader responsibility not just to people who are like them gender-wise and racially but also to their constituents and the entire state.

“We have a lot of responsibility now,” Titone said. “The people have entrusted us with doing the work for all of Colorado. This is a real opportunity as a diverse group to show what we can really do.”

Nic Garcia is a political reporter for The Denver Post. He previously worked for Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization focused on public education, and Out Front, Colorado’s oldest LGBT news organization.

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